My Summer Break in San Diego

Ellen Browning Scripps Park, La Jolla

(all pictures in this post were taken by cell phone)

Let me take a break first from sharing the excitement of our Montana-Wyoming vacation to share some fun activities stay-cationing in San Diego. I should have ample time to be productive online right now, to follow Icy (of Wandering Thought ) and Jo (of Poetic Shutterbug) in making a zazzle store out of their beautiful and inspiring images. BUT, I guess, I am having so much fun in the sun right now. I realized that I even seldom update this blog, and my other blog, Breathe In....Breathe Out. I thought it is this time of the year where I could fill my blog's drafts with saved posts for scheduling, but I found out I do not have any saved posts. What happened to the time? Well, spent very well under the sun. :)

Sea Gulls @ Ellen Browning Scripps Park, La Jolla

It's not all sun for me though, since most Tuesdays, I go to Balboa Park to enjoy the free museums. However, the rest of the week, I am guilty of having too much sand and sun. Let me share with you a typical day for me right now, morning is for taking a walk, or I combine running and walking. Aside from my favorite Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve, one of the places I love to combine running and walking is at the La Jolla Cove area. My walk/jog is on a paved boardwalk on top of the cliffs that is next to the ocean, as you see in the first two pictures above. The sound and the feel of the waves is always very magical to me and I would never get tired of, so after my jog/walk, I take one of the staircases to go down to the beach. Once at the beach, I take off my shoes, and then..... I forget about time!

One of the Beaches Below Ellen Browning Scripps Park

Since I usually start my walk/run early enough, when I am done and relaxing at the beach, there are still not a lot of people to share the sand with me. I love my peacefulness and quiet time in the sea.

I spend a lot of time taking in the scenery around me, such as the crashing of the waves, the pelicans, cormorants, and sea gulls in flight, the swimming harbor seals and/or sea lions, and the swimming fishes that sadly my cell phone had a difficulty taking picture since the cell phone shutter is too slow for the movement of the fish. :) 

Hmmmm, where are the orange fishes (orange girabaldi) I wanted to take in this picture?

But nevertheless, I enjoy every moment seeing all these wonderful sea life creatures despite I had not been lucky enough to take a picture of the California's state marine fish, the orange girabaldi. Whenever I attempt to take pictures of them with my cell phone, I wish I have a faster camera. But then, I won't be able to run with a heavy camera. Also, I have learned a painful lesson already of not using my camera if I plan to be near ocean water. 

Two Kids Enjoying the Water

After enjoying the beach all to myself, slowly, people were coming in. The kids always run to the water first. I actually enjoy watching people too having fun in the water. However, once it gets a little bit more crowded, it's my signal to go home. I had a silent laugh right after I took the last flight of stairs as I went back up to the park, as this squirrel seemed to be asking me, "are you leaving me now?"

While walking along the eastern portion of the park, I saw a group of sea lions forming a big circle in water. It was such a joyful sight seeing them play like that. I hurried in taking out my cell phone, but I was too late. When I took the picture, the sea lions's circle formation were already broken and some of them seemed to be hurriedly swimming away. Why?

Well, I noticed the sea lion went swimming away from these approaching group of snorkelers! I believe the snorkelers were not out to harass the sea lions, but were curious enough to sea lions up close and maybe while they were swimming from afar, they did not see the sea lions were in circle formation. Had they seen the circle formation, I knew they would be cautious enough in approaching quick since they would enjoy the sight too.

If morning is for walking, afternoon is for boogie boarding . I love boogie boarding at Torrey Pines State Beach because it is less crowded than La Jolla Shores. 

Torrey Pines State Beach

After boogie boarding, we usually would look for fishes. Below are some pictures of the harmless guitarfish which we took using our cell phones. The first picture of the fish below was taken by me, and the next one was taken by my hubby. 

Harmless Guitarfish

Guitarfish are harmless, but can be aggressive if one attacks them during the mating season. They blend well with the color of the sand, thus it may be hard to spot them if you won't look to well, but once you see them how they move in the sand, it is fun! The best way to see them however is when you snorkel, since you would easily spot them. 

If you are visiting San Diego, you may ask what else to do other than hiking on top of the bluffs and surfing or swimming? Please check out my old post, on Visiting San Diego.

♥♥